I have written about Alan Rabinowitz on & often. He continues to inspire me personally. I have been inspired after seeing a National Geographic documentary on Alan’s life, his cause & his mission to save the wild. Although he has taken a back seat following his health condition, he still leads the exploration group of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Alan’s expeditions & his stories have brought the grim truth of survival. His fact finding missions led The New York Times call him the Indiana Jones of wildlife science!

In this book, Life in the Valley of Death: The Fight to Save Tigers in a Land of Guns, Gold, and Greed, Alan talks about the story of life & death, of frustration & the emergence of reason in a nondescript Hukaung Valley of Myanmar (Burma). This is a precious land in the eyes of Big Cat conservationists. This has one of the largest population of tigers outside India. But now the wild cats face extinction in the hands of poachers & gold prospectors.

The land strip is also known as the valley of death. Post the World War 2, the Hukaung Valley claimed the lives of thousands of war victims trying to escape the Japanese army. The land is ruled by a military dictatorship. Alan goes on to explain how the group of scientists have to battle not on a vicious government, but also the local military tribes, insurgence, poverty & the crude diplomats!

This is a must read for all conservationists & nature lovers. The review comments “In forests reviled as the valley of death, Rabinowitz finds new life for himself, for communities haunted by poverty and violence, and for the tigers he vowed to protect.”

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We are now integrated with our website, photoduniya.com. We have moved over to http://www.photoduniya.com/photography-blog/. Although we shall keep this blog up and running, most of the future posts will be on the Photoduniya Blog.

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Nikon had announced the launch of the Telephoto VR lenses late last year. The Nikon 600 mm f/4 AF-VR (estimated street price USD 9,500) and the Nikon 500 mm f/4 AF-VR (estimated street price USD 7,900) were announced late last year by Nikon and are yet to hit the market. It had always been a question as to whether one needs a VR with these long lenses for an additional price of between USD 500 to USD 700 and an increased weight of the lens. But looking into the way Nikon is trying to get into the Canon sports market, probably the thought is that many of these “nature” & “field” lenses would now be used in the sports arena easily.

Having said that, the 2 other lenses that automatically come into the discussion are the Nikon 400 mm f/2.8 AF (street price of USD 7,000) and the Sigma 500 mm f/4.5 AF (street price of USD 4,200). Nikon would definitely discontinue the non-VR versions of all the lenses that are already made with VR. The Nikon 500 mm f/4 (non-VR) had been a favorite of most of the nature photographers and had performed superbly for ages would be gone in a few months of time.

Personally, since I do not do sports, I have not much use of the VR in these tele lenses. That leaves the proposition for the Sigma 500 mm f/4.5 AF extremely enticing, especially if I weigh the positive price and the weight factors to the only negative brand factor. But a difference of USD 4,000 does a lot of justification for a small time photographer like me! The reviews had been excellent over years together. And apart from the Service related cribbing that many people reported as a pain point with Sigma, there have been no complaints on the quality or the operations of this lens.

The other brand lens that appears very enticing at least from the price point of view now is the Nikon 200 – 400 mm f/4 G-AFS which comes with a VR for a price of USD 5,100. I have recently sold my very favorite Nikon FM 3A and probably would not have much need of the “D” versions anyway. The Nikon F5 and the Nikon D200 works superbly with the Nikon 200 – 400 mm f/4 G-AFS VR. The zooming ability of this lens, for my needs, out-weighs the benefits of the 500 mm prime.

I have thought of the Sigmonster (Sigma 300 – 800 mm f/5.6) for over a year now. It is probably an excellent value for the money (for a price of USD 7,000) but since I have started doing a lot of streets now, I have to finally get this lens off my mind for good!

Here’s a brief of what the D3 has to offer:

• 12.1 MP CMOS sensor
• FX format (thats a full frame 36 x 24 format)
• Continuous 9 fps in FX mode and high speed 11 fps in DX crop
• Noise reduction in extreme 25,600 ISO
• 51 point auto focus with 3D focus tracking and improved Scene Recognition System

Here is the link to the detailed specifications on the Nikon’s website.

The Ferocious Few rocked and rolled as usual on the corner of Powell entertaining a huge crowd of passers by and the tourists.

Francisco Fernandez the lead guitarist, song writer and singer, comes into his own with his rock and roll, while his partner, adept with the drums and percussion, keeps with the beats equally well.

The Ferocious Few @ photoduniya.com

I did almost seven hundred shots this evening of Cici, Chelsea & Whitney, Jonathan, Ming Xiong and off course the Ferocious Few. Over a period of time I shall update the projects section on photoduniya.com.

Chelsea & Whitney were playing the violin and the guitar, charming up probably Celtic tunes for a christian charity. They formed a nice pair, not only on the instruments, but together with their youthful innocence and cheerful naivety.

More of their images will be uploaded on photoduniya.com shortly.

The Faces from San Francisco is well underway. This gentleman walked up to me to snap a few pictures of his that he could share with his family. He was vending some flowers and some local artifacts to the tourists close to China town.

I went back several times with small prints hoping to find him again and give him those copies. He had been very patient all the while I was taking the shots.

Tip: The most difficult part of a street portrait is not other than having the right background. Unless you are carry a 2.8 or faster lens, the distraction of the background is usually too high. You cannot do much about it other than changing the perspective or shooting effectively with flash. In this case, the background was muted by a glass wall. However, if you are an expert in digital photo tools like Adobe Photoshop ™ you could improve the bokeh through layer manipulations.

It’s not easy making a living in this century being a shoe shine person. Definitely not when the names like Nike, Adidas and Reebok and changed the way we slip-n-slide in and out of the sports footwear. You just cannot ask anyone walking by to stop a moment and get their shoes shined! You have to look hard, make the kind of shoe and then probably make your pitch. And thats not easy in the busy streets of San Francisco.

So when the moment comes, you cannot leave anything to chances. You get down to work and in matter of minutes it’s over. Making an honest living is tough, putting a shine onto it, is something very few people are seen to do these days.

The images are shot on Nikon D200 at 100 ASA on a monopod. A few of them will be updated on the photoduniya project Faces from San Francisco (0607-001).

Today’s image is of Mr Jonathan R. Dyer. I met him playing the Saxophone on Market Street. Slightly different in both tune and approach, Jonathan plays very smooth, sliding effortlessly from between the octaves. His hand movement symbolizes he is trying to compose and visualize the tunes flowing out of his instrument.

Jonathan R Dyer @ photoduniya.com

You could visit the artist on myspace.com/dyerhornesf or write to him at dyerhornesf@aol.com. He performs in the city and also sells his music on CDs.

Working ahead on the project San Francisco Street Artists (0507-001) featured here is the band The Ferocious Few. Its a rock and roll band featuring the founder Francisco Fernandez who also happens to be the singer and the guitarist.

The afternoon crowed seemed to enjoy every bit of the music. Apart from the charm that gleamed in the singer’s eye, the audience tapped and chimed to the tunes.

The group performs in various clubs and forums and you could reach out to them for more information on their programs. You could browse them on http://www.theferociousfew.com/ or email them at ciscokid@theferocisoufew.com.

 This is also a part of my project on San Francisco Street artists and some of the pictures have been uploaded on photoduniya in the Projects section. The pages will be updated with more such emerging and promising artists.

The pictures have been taken with the permission of Francisco Fernandez with the knowledge that they will be published on my website (photoduniya.com) and the blogs as this one. The copyright remains with Ranjay Mitra & photoduniya.com.

It’s familiar to hear the jazz music echoing in the San Francisco streets but having to hear a completely different music culture played on another was unique. And you should see the glitter in his eyes when he feels the rhythm conjuring in the bystander’s swaying motion.

Chen apologized for not being fluent in English. But then, when he knows the language of the heart and the mind, why would he need any language at all?

You could see more of “San Francisco Street Artists” in the Project section of photoduniya.com.

But business and the lure of exploitation could not keep away from this treasure spot for long. The sky walk, built by Californian businessman David Jin, was envisioned in 1996 and finally open to the public in March – April 2007. Charging $25 per visitor, this is planned to be a strong attraction for tourists. David Jin would collect the money for 25 long years (averaging a low of 100 visitors a day, this could be as much as $ 60 million dollars).

While on one hand lies the question of the Hualapai tribe using their priveledges to rent the land for income (they will own the skywalk while David Jin keeps half the money for himself), on the other side, lies the technical ability of the structure to hold on safely for so long. The 70 feet walk, hanging 4000 feet over the Colorado River on the Grand Canyon, is built by steel and glass drilled 40 feet into the porous canyon walls.

Read the article on National Geographic here. The original article read “It’s the most iconic of American landscapes, yet the Grand Canyon still has the power to surprise.” As long as the bridge is the last of such surprises, its good news. And as long as another amusement park does not invest another few millions to create roller coasters, I guess, we are happy.

I recently saw one of the documentaries by Dr Alan Rabinowitz made by the National Geographic Society – titled In Search of the Jaguars. It details the life and the heroic work of Dr Alan from his early days growing up in Brooklyn, NY to the rest of his life spent in an undying effort to save the Jaguars in Central America.

Although the Jaguar project of Central America has taken up the most of Dr Alan’s better life, he is also known to discover the smallest deer species – the leaf deer and communicating with the Tarons – the Mongolian pygmies who faced  near extinction. The documentaries are published in his book “Beyond the Last Village“.

While you read and see his work, you get to realize what an immense source of strength this person had been throughout his life. Refusing to  give up at daunting challenges, he has fought over twenty five years of his life for the safety and preservation of some of the most fragile species and cultures of our planet.

Today, while his Jaguar project has gained some momentum and has interested similar minded conservationists, Dr Alan Rabinowitz  is facing a harsh reality. He has been diagonized with Leukemia. But not deterred by his physical challenges, Dr Alan Rabinowitz continue to lead the conservation initiatives till today.

You could read more about him on the web at Save the Jaguar. As a last note, the Wildlife Conservation Society runs completely from donations and some of their most critical projects are funded out of donations from people who want to save this planet.

Celebrating this occasion,  the President Michio Kariya laid a clean vision for the next decade – “Our Aspirations – Meeting needs. Exceeding expectations” as Nikon steadily moved ahead to its 100 birthday.

Nikon will retain it’s brand logo of the hashed yellow square, meant to represent “Transforming imagination into creativity“. The sequential white rays symbolize “infinite possibilities within the domain of optics” while the yellow has an emotional significance of “depth” and “passion“. The bold black name of Nikon within the logo emphasizes the solid “trust” and the “commitment” of the company.

Quite truly, Nikon has evolved as an institution of creativity. Starting with the F mount cameras in 1959, and the 3D color matrix metering of the early 2000, Nikon has shelved competition from Canon, Sony and Panasonic. Albeit the staunch followers of Nikon are more than willing to bear the high prices for the quality they offer.

More news available on the Nikon Corporate website.

Note: We are now integrated with photoduniya.com and have moved to a new location. Please update your bookmark. Click here to go to the new location http://www.photoduniya.com/photography-blog/

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When digital technology and advances made in digital sensors have created excellent cameras, it has constantly challenged the ability to store digital files – be it images or movie files. While Tera Bytes have become cheaper and softwares are becoming more efficient in retrieval of files, the main challenge that digital photographers and video makers face is that of an era of evolving file-creation technology.

The traditional CDs have slowly given way to the more efficient DVD format allowing us to store more images on a smaller media. The DVD format has constantly evolved and is going through another major evolution right at this moment! The Blu-Ray is in! Developed by the Blu-Ray Disck Association and funded and supported in various capacities by close to 200 world renowned electronic device & movie makers.

Contrary to the current disk writing technology of using the red laser beam (that has an effective wavelength of 650 nano meters) the Blu-Ray will use a Blue Violet laser (with an effective wavelength of 405 nano meters) allowing the technology to pack more content within the same space of the disk. A single-layer Blu-Ray disk can store 25 Gigabytes of content compared to 4.7 GB of a DVD and a double-layer Blu-Ray disk can store as much as 50 GB compared to 8.5 GB of a DVD!

While the Blu-Ray technology is supported by a large array of disk makers and industry leaders including:

Apple Computer, Inc.
Dell Inc.
Hewlett Packard Company
Hitachi, Ltd.
LG Electronics Inc.
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
Pioneer Corporation
Royal Philips Electronics
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Sharp Corporation
Sony Corporation
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
TDK Corporation
Thomson Multimedia
Twentieth Century Fox
Walt Disney Pictures
Warner Bros. Entertainment

a competing technology, named the HD-DVD, is extensively developed by Toshiba & NEC.

Although at this time, the Blu-Ray evolution is backed up by the largest number of the world’s leaders of electronic device manufacturers and movie makers, the capacity advantage is surely in favor of Blu-Ray. With a larger Numerical Aperture of 0.85 exceeds that of HD-DVD’s 0.65, allowing it to put in more data on the same disk. As a comparison, a single-layer Blu-Ray disc packs in 25 GB vis-a-vis 15 GB for a HD-DVD while a double-layer Blu-Ray disk packs 50 GB compared to 30 GB for a HD-DVD.

To match the camera, the digital back comes with impressive writing speed of 300 MB/sec & an ISO range from 500 to 10,000 ASA. The special sensor is produced by DALSA Corporation exclusively for Seitz. Ref: http://www.roundshot.ch/

SanDisk has aggressively produced CF cards to go along with such a massive electronic device. In 2006 Photokina it launched the 12 GB and 16 GB Extreme III CF cards with writing speeds of 20 MB/sec. Not to mention the cost that pro’s shell out for such gadgets – a whopping USD 800.00 for the 12 GB and USD 1050.00 for the 16 GB.

And yes, with such a capacity, you can shoot without the worry of running out of space!

Also called the Lange’s Metalmark after late William H Lange Jr., the UC Berkeley entomologist and UC Davis professor, who first identified this butterly in 1930, this grey metallic colored, spotted butterfly with a wingspan of about 1 to 1.5 inches, is fast becoming extinct! The Metalmark, from the Riodinidae family, is one of the first insects to be protected by the US Endangered Species Act since 1976. The peak count stood at 45 adults in mid 2006 from 232 in 2005 and a high of 2,342 in 1999.

In a similar situation, the Palos Verdes blue butterfly, a Southern California local species once thought to be extinct, was revived by habitat improvement and captive breeding. Similar approach is taken to save and revive the about to be extinct Metalmark. Once quite popular throughout the central and northern Californian region, the Metalmark is now only found in the Antioch Dunes National Park. The revival process is slow and tedious, made even more difficult by the facts that it’s breeding ground is shrinking every day and it can only produce one generation in a year.

The adults lay eggs at the base of buckwheat stems during late summer, during August & September. The eggs hatch into larvae during the rainy season and are known only to feed on the buckwheat. With wild fire burning down large areas of buckwheat every year, the larvae dies of starvation. For the ones who survive, mature from caterpillars into butterflies in mid to late summer. Such a long gestation and maturity period makes breeding in captivity of this species even more challenging.

At the time of writing this article, Feb 24 2007, I have only seen one Metalmark in the Don Edward Wildlife Refuge. I could not take its picture! I was patiently waiting to see it pair up with another one, but it fluttered all alone!

The approximate $250,000 grant from the Central Valley Project Conservation Program for the Metalmark’s revival is to be run at the San Diego Zoo’s Beckham Center for Conservation Research in Escondido.